The purpose of this study was to investigate the tenability of a proposed path-analytic model relating resourcefulness and persistence in the context of adult autonomous learning. Data collected from a nonprobability sample of 492 American adults using valid and reliable measures for resourcefulness and persistence were analyzed. Results suggest that although adults intend to persist in valued learning activities, they often do not choose to engage in such activities. Methods are discussed that may help educators foster autonomous learning tendencies in their students, thereby supporting their development as lifelong learners.
Opportunities to engage in learning anytime or anywhere must address the issue of how to foster the desire for sustained and enduring learning. The need to understand the conditions necessary for facilitating this type of learning requires an understanding of the behaviors associated with autonomous learning coupled with self-efficacy beliefs.A technological transformation during the past decade has eliminated the boundaries between formal and informal learning. As we adapt to a knowledge-driven society, a cultural transformation is occurring. Lifelong learning is an essential goal of education as a means to improve the quality of life for an individual, a culture, or a society. The value of sustained learning is demonstrated through changes in economic growth and social well-being, as well as the development of a democratic way of life. Although we now have opportunities to engage in learning anytime or anywhere, we must address the issue of how to foster the desire for sustained and enduring learning and, more important, create environments that are conducive to this lifelong learning process.Establishing the conditions necessary for facilitating and enhancing the capacity for sustained and enduring learning requires understanding which behaviors are important for independent, autonomous learning. The research of Derrick (2001), Carr (1999), and Ponton (1999) establishes a definitive understanding of the specific characteristics associated with persistence, resourcefulness, and initiative in autonomous learning, coupled with self-efficacy beliefs that facilitate learners who can endure and sustain their learning in any setting or medium. Their research was predicated on the belief that autonomous learning behaviors can be identified and quantified through the development of items that assess the relative capacity of intentions to learn (that is, conation).The original research focused on the development of a conceptual framework that adequately addresses these questions: What are the specific attributes of learners who exhibit initiative, resourcefulness, and persistence NEW DIRECTIONS FOR ADULT AND CONTINUING EDUCATION, no. 100, Winter 2003 © Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 5 1 6 FACILITATING LEARNING IN ONLINE ENVIRONMENTSin learning? Does the medium or setting make a difference with regard to learner autonomy? What is the importance of developing lifelong, independent learners?Perspectives regarding teaching and learning have seen a subtle shift over the past decade. There is a greater emphasis on the learner and on the structures and mechanisms that sustain and develop the skills and attitudes needed for the future. The shift in thinking has focused on the internal conditions that are necessary for sustained and enduring learning rather than on the external surroundings and settings.Distance education has reinforced the emphasis on cognitive and psychological conditions that support learning as we continue to move toward anytime-anyplace learning. The online format is viewed as an alternative way to learn in a tech...
The need to understand contemporary adult learners and the methods that promote continual, sustained learning is of paramount importance particularly for doctoral programs, but more specifically for online doctoral programs. The online format is viewed as an alternative way to learn in a technologically driven society that focuses on time, opportunity, and convenience as critical considerations for learning endeavors. An examination of the factors associated with attrition in doctoral programs includes understanding and confronting personal and institutional barriers to successful matriculation. Researchers have identified general characteristics of effective graduate students such as motivation, attitude, collegiality, writing/communication skills, values and integrity (Walpole, Burton, Kanyi, & Jackenthal, 2002) but have not established a clear understanding of the specific characteristics that facilitate or obstruct enduring and sustained learning. This paper proposes a conceptual model that includes attributes of learner autonomy (desire, resourcefulness, initiative, and persistence in learning) as influential mediators of self‐efficacy and motivation for learning and may improve retention and completion rates in higher education.
Confessore (1992) proposed that desire, initiative, resourcefulness and persistence are critical factors for understanding why adults engage in independent and self‐directed learning endeavors. A series of four studies identified the conative factors associated with each construct through the development of a conceptual model that provides a framework for understanding autonomous learning. It is proposed that these constructs are embedded in the larger construct of learner autonomy. A learner who can exhibit personal autonomy will exhibit all of the identified behaviors identified as characteristic behaviors of autonomous learning. The series of four studies (desire, resourcefulness, initiative, and persistence) individually produced valid and reliable instruments, and ultimately produced a single instrument, The Learner Autonomy Profile, that quantifies an individual's intentions to engage in autonomous learning endeavors.
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